Newscaster Ann Baldwin Leaving Tv For Radio Gig At Wtic-am

Longtime local newscaster Ann Baldwin is not only switching stations, she's switching media.

Baldwin said she is leaving WVIT, Channel 30, after work today, having spent 10 1/2 years as a weekend anchor and a reporter at the station.

She said she decided to leave after the station offered to keep her only as a reporter, not as an anchor, and at a lower pay. News Director Steve Schwaid would not comment, saying he does not discuss personnel matters.

Although Baldwin may not be seen, she will still be heard, because she has agreed to a deal with radio station WTIC-AM (1080).

Bill Stairs, WTIC's operations manager, said he doesn't have a specific show or time slot for Baldwin but said he felt he couldn't afford to pass up the opportunity to bring her to the station.

``I just had the chance to scoop her up, so I did it in a heartbeat,'' said Stairs, praising Baldwin's versatility and saying she has performed well in fill-in spots and guest roles at WTIC.

She will be used in those roles, along with occasionally preparing and reading news reports, he said. He wouldn't discuss the length or amount of the deal.

Baldwin's radio commitment apparently will not be full time, because she also is starting a media-relations business, Media Marketing Consultants, with Pam Howard, a former New Britain mayoral aide, and Roxanne Amaio. The new business, which is based in New Britain, will teach clients how to deal with the media, including how to handle TV interviews.

Baldwin, 36, said she loved her TV job and part of her will miss working in television. She said she would be interested in returning to TV in the future, although she has a clause in her WVIT contract that keeps her from working for any local TV competitors for six months.

In recent weeks, she said, she was taken off the weekend evening newscast, where she was co-anchor with Don Lark, and was shifted to the weekday morning show to fill in for anchor Carolyn Pennington, who was on leave but is scheduled to return.

Baldwin said she asked Schwaid why WVIT had less interest in her and said she was told that she was not ``live, local and late-breaking,'' the station's slogan.

At the same time, she said she was looking forward to her new jobs. Radio, in particular, offers freedom unavailable in TV newscasts, which are scripted and have little time for spontaneous talk, Baldwin said.

``That's what I love about radio,'' she said. ``I can be more of what I really am.''